Senators rally before falling to Leafs in shootout

With 40 minutes of their Saturday night game at Canadian Tire Centre against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the books, the Ottawa Senators appeared mortally wounded.

Down 3-1 with but a period to play, they were 20 minutes away from being nine points back of their provincial rivals, who currently hold down the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

On top of all that, Toronto held a 10-1-2 record when leading after two periods and was playing in front of a very friendly crowd at the Canadian Tire Centre.

During the intermission, the players discussed what Jason Spezza afterwards called the “most important period of the season.”

And while they did ultimately fall 4-3 in a shootout, they did manage to salvage a point — and a glimmer of hope — out of what looked like another dispiriting loss in a season full of them.

Erik Condra made things interesting at 2:23 of the third and Erik Karlsson tied it up on the power play at 10:30 to send the game to overtime.

James van Riemsdyk, Phil Kessel and Jake Gardiner scored for the Leafs, who had won one of six games heading into this one, while van Riemsdyk and Mason Raymond succeeded in the breakaway contest to secure the win.

Former Leaf Clarke MacArthur had the other Ottawa goal, while Craig Anderson stopped 28 in the loss.

Things looked pretty bleak after the game unraveled for the Senators in the second period.

Kessel continued to do what he does against Ottawa. His goal at 3:05 of the period was his 22nd in 44 games against the Senators, in addition to 20 assists along the way. Credit due to van Riemsdyk for delivering the perfect saucer pass to complete the 2-on-1 there.

The play wasn’t without controversy. Nazem Kadri had tripped up Zack Smith at the opposing blue line to set up the odd-man rush the other way and, as the Leafs celebrated their 2-1 lead, Smith said something the officials obviously didn’t like. He received a two-minute minor for unsportsmanlike conduct and an additional 10-minute misconduct.

Kessel extended his point-scoring streak to six games on the play.

The Senators thought they had an argument against the Leafs’ third goal as well. Jake Gardiner notched his first of the season by beating both Anderson and van Riemsdyk, who’d been deposited into the net by Ottawa defenceman Marc Methot. He didn’t try very hard to avoid falling backwards onto the Ottawa goalie, but the goal stood nonetheless.

The game had been pretty even to that point. It got off to the kind of crackling start you’d expect from two of the league’s more careless defensive teams. The Senators entered the game averaging the fourth-most shots allowed per game in the league (34.4), which looks bad until you consider the Leafs’ 36.6 (last place).

They’re also two of the most penalized teams (Toronto second, Ottawa sixth).

It took all of 1:37 for van Riemsdyk to fire up the crowd with his 13th goal of the season — on the power play, of course.

Thirty-nine seconds earlier, Erik Karlsson had taken a tripping call after he couldn’t handle a hot puck fired to his point in the offensive zone and compensated by sticking his leg in front of Nazem Kadri as the play turned up-ice.

Jared Cowen’s attempt to clear the front of the net came a couple seconds too late as van Riemsdyk put home an easy rebound goal after a Dion Phaneuf point shot.

Ottawa responded with a PPG of its own at the 9:44 mark with Leafs centre Jay McClement off serving a tripping penalty of his own.

MacArthur, who in October ripped Leafs bench boss Randy Carlyle for scratching him in the playoffs last season, sent a message of his own with a nice one-timer to knot the score 1-1.

His celebratory fist-pump had a little more oomph to it than usual.

The Senators were serenaded with the boos of a hostile “home” crowd throughout the night, however.

The fact that the sold out Canadian Tire Centre had a large contingent of Leaf fans is nothing new, of course, though the number of Bud backers reaching the 75-80 per cent range was somewhat unique.

GAME FILE

WHY THEY LOST

After climbing back into the game, they had to take part in a shootout, where they struggle mightily (0-4)

CHEERS

James Reimer, Leafs

The Leafs goalie improved to 9-1-1 lifetime against the Senators, with a save percentage north of .940.

JEERS

Shawn Thornton, Bruins

Sure it was in a completely different game, but the stink of the Bruin tough guy’s assault on Penguins defenceman Brooks Orpik (punching him on the ice until he was unconscious and had to be stretchered off) wafted across the entire league Saturday night.

GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

It was nice of the Senators to show a highlight reel of hometown defenceman Mark Borowiecki, who has played pretty well in the NHL this season. Unfortunately, he was recently demoted to Binghamton. Not quite as nice: Playing a highlight reel of stumbling, bumbling Toronto mayor Rob Ford prior to overtime.